Very Good Lemon Cake

Take a pound of sugar pound and sift it three quarters pound of the choicest flour 12 eggs but only six whites grate the rind of two large lemons beet the eggs with a whisk until they are light and thick, then put in your sugar by degrees and put it in your flour after the same manner, mix the lemon peel with two or three spoonfulls of batter then put it to the rest and continue beating of it till the oven be ready put in a tin pan floured then set it in a quick oven an hour will bake it, if you please you may put in some sweet meats.

—from an 18^th century Irish cookbook manuscript